Individuals with Autism are vulnerable to many factors such as social, psychological, emotional and physical challenges. They can become excluded from services that an average person takes for granted. People with Autism often live in housing with little or no personal interaction or support available.
At Contix, we have turned people’s lives around by giving tailored and diligent support. We do this by working closely with clients past medical professionals and supporting their ongoing needs through our strong team of support workers and volunteers.
Autistic people may act in a different way from other people
Autistic people may:
- Find it difficult to connect and communicate with other people.
- Find it difficult to understand how other people think or feel.
- Being in environments that contain flashing lights or loud noises, overstimulating, upsetting or stressful.
- Get upset or angry when they find themselves in new environments or crowded social gatherings.
- Require more time to understand verbal prompts.
- Doing or thinking the same things over and over again.
Autism is not an illness.
- Being autistic does not mean that you have a disease or illness. It means that your brain functions differently from “Neurotypical” people.
- Autism is something that you’re born with or that first emerges when you are young.
- If you’re diagnosed as being autistic, understand that it is a condition that will remain with you for the rest of your life.
- Autism is not a mental illness; it’s a neurological condition.
Autistic people can live a full life.
- Being autistic does not have to stop you from having a good life.
- Like everyone, autistic people have things they’re good at as well as things they struggle with.
- Being autistic does not mean you can never make friends, have relationships or get a job. But you might need extra help with these things.
Autism is different for everyone.
- Autism is a spectrum. This means everybody with autism is different.
- Some autistic people need little or no support. Others may need help from a parent or carer every day.
Some people use other names for autism.
There are other names for autism used by some people, such as:
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – the medical name for autism.
- Autism spectrum condition (ASC) – used instead of ASD by some people.
- Asperger’s (or Asperger syndrome) – used by some people to describe autistic people with average or above-average intelligence.
It’s not clear what causes autism.
Nobody knows what causes autism or if it has a cause.
It can affect people in the same family. So it may sometimes be passed on to a child by their parents.
Autism is not caused by:
- Bad parenting.
- Vaccines, such as the MMR vaccine.
- Diet.
- An infection you can spread to other people.
Autistic people can have any level of intelligence
Some autistic people have average or above-average intelligence.
Some autistic people have a learning disability. This means they may find it hard to look after themselves and need help with daily life.
Autistic people may have other conditions.
Autistic people often have other conditions, like:
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyslexia.
- Anxiety or depression.
- Epilepsy.
